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THE NUMBERLYS

Name: THE NUMBERLYS
Author: William Joyce
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7343-0

by William Joyce ; illustrated by William Joyce ; Christina Ellis ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2014

Neither the picture-book medium nor the Numberlys app is as well-served as each deserves.

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A successful app makes a transition to print.

Joyce and Ellis’ Moonbot Studios fable about an evolution in thinking loses something in the translation from tablet to print, despite its 50-plus–page length. A vast, somber art deco metropolis rendered in straight lines and monochromatic grays and browns houses a world of numbers and gears: “[E]verything added up.” Five little beings, sporting round eyes and round heads (some with antennae), want “MORE.” They design and manufacture a familiar, Western alphabet from the forms of numbers. Upon completion of the Z, the letters, bright with color, form the words of new, appealing ideas (“jellybeans,” “yellow,” “pizza”), even names. Numbers disappear altogether; the world transforms to full color. Young readers—and significant adults—frequently look for books to extend screen-based story experiences. The opportunity to look more closely at the Numberlys’ world is definitely an attraction. But the visual richness isn’t matched by the insubstantial plot, and suggesting that numbers aren’t beautiful or that the sole source of color and fun is our alphabet seems trite and misguided. Much of the book requires turning pages vertically as if opening a calendar, matching the tall cityscape but making shared reading awkward.

Neither the picture-book medium nor the Numberlys app is as well-served as each deserves. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: May 27, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-4424-7343-0

Page Count: 56

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
ROCKET PUPPIES
by William Joyce ; illustrated by William Joyce

- BOOK REVIEW
OLLIE'S ODYSSEY
by William Joyce ; illustrated by William Joyce

- BOOK REVIEW
JACK FROST
by William Joyce ; illustrated by William Joyce & Andrew Theophilopoulos

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THE DAY THE CRAYONS MADE FRIENDS

by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 3, 2025

Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees.

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After Duncan finds his crayons gone—yet again—letters arrive, detailing their adventures in friendship.

Eleven crayons send missives from their chosen spots throughout Duncan’s home (and one from his classroom). Red enjoys the thrill of extinguishing “pretend fires” with Duncan’s toy firetruck. White, so often dismissed as invisible, finds a new calling subbing in for the missing queen on the black-and-white chessboard. “Now everyone ALWAYS SEES ME!…(Well, half the time!)” Pink’s living the dream as a pastry chef helming the Breezy Bake Oven, “baking everything from little cupcakes…to…OTHER little cupcakes!” Teal, who’s hitched a ride to school in Duncan’s backpack, meets the crayons in the boy’s desk and writes, “Guess what? I HAVE A TWIN! How come you never told me?” Duncan wants to see his crayons and “meet their new friends.” A culminating dinner party assembles the crayons and their many guests: a table tennis ball, dog biscuits, a well-loved teddy bear, and more. The premise—personified crayons, away and back again—is well-trammeled territory by now, after over a dozen books and spinoffs, and Jeffers once more delivers his signature cartooning and hand-lettering. Though the pages lack the laugh-out-loud sight gags and side-splittingly funny asides of previous outings, readers—especially fans of the crayons’ previous outings—will enjoy checking in on their pals.

Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 3, 2025

ISBN: 9780593622360

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Philomel

Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE FREDDIE TWO PANTS
by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins

- BOOK REVIEW
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY FROM THE CRAYONS
by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

- BOOK REVIEW
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY FROM THE CRAYONS
by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)